


Faith

by isabeau



Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: Gen, Kinda old fic (pre-2005), M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-01
Updated: 2005-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-18 07:37:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau/pseuds/isabeau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate perspective on Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faith

It is said the Jedi are gods.

Seeing them for the first time, I believe it.

My father called them because the la'ik are threatening our crops  
again, because we do not wish to kill but we do not wish to starve.  
The Jedi, my father said, knew ways of keeping them away without  
killing.

Two came, with grave promises to help us. Both are quiet, and both  
shimmer with some awesome power.

I am not officially here. Officially, I am helping my younger  
brother with the ko'lak harvest; but Dimal can handle it himself, and  
I had to see. Had to know.

The older, taller one spends much time talking with my father in low  
tones. He seems very peaceful, very sure of himself. His hands  
gesture, but otherwise he holds himself very very still, enough that  
it looks odd when a breeze stirs his cloak or hair.

The younger one is more restless, full of a repressed energy. He  
bounces lightly on his toes, listening intently to the conversation  
but interjecting very little. After a time, the older Jedi holds up a  
hand to my father, turns his head, and says something I can't hear. I  
think he is smiling. The young Jedi laughs and bows and then walks  
away, looking curiously about him as my father resumes the  
conversation.

After a few paces he stops, smiles a secret little smile, and looks  
directly at where I am. "Hello," he says quietly.

I blink at him, too startled to speak for a moment. The golak tree  
was perhaps scant protection for me, but I had not expected to be  
seen, let alone by one of the Jedi. But his eyes are friendly and his  
manner is relaxed, and after a moment I attempt a smile. "Hello..."

He is about my age, perhaps a little older. Almost he looks normal,  
like one of us, not the gods that the Jedi are. "Is it true what they  
say about you?" I blurt, and then duck my head, embarrassed.

The Jedi does not laugh at my question, though his green-blue eyes  
look startled and a little amused. "Depends. What do they say?"

I want to flee, but curiosity outweighs embarrassment. "That you--  
Jedi-- are gods. That you can fly, that you can control people, that  
you can see the future. That you can bring things back to life. That  
you can control destinies."

The corners of his mouth dimple with a smile. "We aren't gods, I'm  
afraid," he says. "I would not want to be. The power would frighten  
me."

"But you have power."

"Some. Not much." He shrugs, still smiling, but there is a trace of  
sadness under there. "And we cannot control anyone's destiny. Not  
even our own." His glance drifts over to the other Jedi with a  
wistful expression. "Not even when we wish to," he murmurs, I think  
to himself.

I should not ask, I know I should not ask, but I have made enough of a  
fool of myself already with the questions, one more cannot hurt. "Are  
you two lovers?"

He stares at me, eyes narrowed, but looking more cautious than angry.  
"Why do you ask that?"

"Because I do not see two people traveling together if they are not  
either child and parent, or lovers. And you do not look like his son."

"I am not his son, no," he says, and laughs quietly.

He does not deny that they are lovers, but he does not acknowledge  
it either. Cautiously I ask the only thing I can. "What are you,  
then, that you travel together?

"His Padawan. His apprentice."

An apprentice god, then, and I smile but do not say that.

He kneels, and-- partly, I think, in an attempt to distract me from  
more questions-- asks a question of his own. "What is this?"

"Do you not know?" I say, wondering where I get the temerity to tease  
a god. "I thought Jedi knew everything."

"We prize knowledge, but we do not have it all." He smiles. "We  
never have it all. If we did, there would be nothing more to learn,  
and where would the fun be in that?"

"Application of knowledge?" I suggest.

"Besides," he adds, grinning, "I would likely forget it all." He  
holds something, heart-shaped and a shiny red-brown, up for me to see.  
"This is...?"

"A golak nut."

"From the tree?" He looks up, rubbing the nut absently. "It is a  
beautiful thing."

"It is common," I say, slightly surprised. I am used to ignoring  
that which is too common.

"Not to me." He hesitates. "Are they free for the taking?"

"If you want it, no one will deny it to you." I smile, a bit wryly.  
"It is common."

He nods at me and slips the nut into one of the pouches on his belt,  
then stands. "I should go. My Master will be calling for me."

"You can see the future," I say, half-statement, half-question.

"No," he says, and laughs, "but my master is terribly predictable."

"Padawan," the older Jedi calls, distantly.

The younger Jedi and I look at each other and smile. He starts to  
leave, but I put a hand on his sleeve. "Wait." I kneel, searching  
for another golak nut that is as close as possible to the one he has  
already. One that is unbroken and unflawed. Then my fingers find  
one, and I hand it up to him.

"For your Master," I say. "A present."

He looks at me for a long moment, and my heart beats quickly in fear  
that I have overstepped my bounds. Then he touches my forehead with  
two fingers in a ritual parting gesture I hadn't expected him to know.  
"Thank you," he says simply, and walks away.

I watch him go. My forehead tingles where he touched me.

I have been touched by a god.

Smiling, I bend and take another golak nut for myself, slipping it  
into my pocket and rubbing the smooth shell with my fingers.  



End file.
